Single Point Links posted in June 2010

Seems like a good time to link to the seat reservation page for the conditional Ottawa CFL franchise. With Monday’s vote, doubts about the franchise should be lessened. Still, in case the franchise is not granted, reservation fees will be refunded. Just $25/seat reservation, a great and inexpensive way to show support for football in Ottawa.

Doing away with the mish-mash of networks and tape-delay broadcasts that made up the US schedule in previous years, the CFL partners with the NFL Network to air 14 games live in 2010. Though the league’s announcement tries to spin the positive, only 14 of 72 regular season games on a cable broadcaster will disappoint the many friends and relatives of US players and fans who want to watch CFL football. All games streaming live on ESPN3 is some consolation, but for a last day announcement I expected much more coverage.

Interesting happenings in Hamilton where all has been quiet on the stadium front while the mediation process occurred. The view from Edmonton and Hamilton and elsewhere.

If Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger is successful in selling the Ti-Cats out from under Bob Young when they are not for sale, that will set a huge legal precedent. The political wags in Hamilton have all the leverage, it appears, with Katz, who wants some leverage of his own for a new arena in Edmonton.

TSN is proving a valuable partner with two 30-minute shows Tuesday, June 29th reviewing the Top 10 plays of 2009 and the season of the Grey Cup Champion Montreal Alouettes and a two hour 2010 CFL Preview show on Wednesday, June 30th. Only a dedicated cable broadcaster can provide this and with an exclusive contract TSN is willing to produce it.

Wasn’t putting the park back in the Park part of the criteria, Clive? Funny how Mr. Doucet uses a different mantra every day. It’s about the commercial development, it’s about sole sourcing, it’s about keeping the park public, it’s about turning it into a park. Basically it is about a politician who can’t itemize his position and plan, but sure can play the politics of opposition.

Please Ottawa, if you decide you don’t want a stadium, vote against the current collaboration and knock down the stadium, but don’t create a stadium that will be good for nothing, keep the parking lot for the Exhibition and add a little retail and call it the best plan. At least if the stadium is gone there won’t be debate about building new when half a stadium is still standing.

Four part Citizen series on Lansdowne issues includes the above Heritage article and opposition (to the amount of square footage) from the neighbourhood business improvement organization this weekend. Next weekend there will be stories on transportation and financing.

Sounds like the odds just shifted towards council wavering again, perhaps to building a new stadium and arena off-site but still allowing some development in the park to try and satisfy all parties (and pay for it all). If so, the city will have lost 3 years and will delay any completion of a new stadium and Lansdowne Park redevelopment by 3 to 5 years as well, that is if the developers/conditional franchise owners are will to participate in such a plan.

CFLdb is still getting lot of searches looking for CFL pre-season televised coverage. Unfortunately, CFL pre-season has not been covered nationally historically with two exceptions1. If you aren’t in your team’s local radio market and can’t stream over the Internet, I suggest the CFL Live Play and Scores site for the most up-to-date action from the games this weekend. That will likely be the only source besides local regional coverage until the next TV deal.

1 - Those are the 1992 Toronto-Calgary pre-season game in Portland, Oregon and the 2005 Hamilton-Toronto game in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

May have been pre-determined, but it is now official. Let’s get behind this choice, it is certainly better than suggestions, facetious they may be, that Quebec City or the Maritimes should host the event. Attracting people like Chris Rudge as chairman and CEO of the 2012 Grey Cup Festival speaks to the serious attention this event will be given in Toronto.

Update: The date has been announced for the traditional last weekend in November, the 25th.

Somewhat of a shocker since this hasn’t bubbled up as an issue and there has been no discussion of it recently. Sounds like it is here to stay with no trial period. Get prepared now for the first time a technology glitch affects a team and their QB doesn’t know how to read hand signals and players aren’t used to running in plays.

My first pick if bringing water into the park would prove bureaucratically difficult, although some still feel the city should pursue that angle. I think this design will phase nicely and bring all the major components to the park.

The Ottawa Citizen outlines ten hurdles the Lansdowne Park revitalization process must overcome to become reality. They are a deal with the city, pass peer reviews, survive heritage challenges, receive a recommendation from the urban park jury and design review panel, have the financial deal pass auditor and council inspection, zoning changes, attract tenants to the retail component, not be affected by a changing economy, limit cost overruns and prevent either side from utilizing a bail-out clause before construction begins.

While it appears most are still optimistic about the process being concluded by what they’ve seen so far, it appears even after a June 28th decision, there will be many more dates the project will need to pass. The project may go through with modifications, but I expect all of the bureaucracy will delay construction and ultimately the fielding of a team to the 2014 season.

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